Series Description

Alien Nation was a 60 minute sci-fi series on the FOX Network about two Los Angeles, California police detectives. The twist is that one of them was an alien from the planet Tencton. He arrived on Earth on a slave ship along with many thousands of other fellow aliens. Happy to be free, they take their places among humans in society. The human detective tended to be a "hot-head" while his alien partner maintained a calm demeanor. This often caused differences in their opinions about how to handle situations they encountered on the job and in their personal lives.

Alien Nation Cast

Gary Graham .... Matthew Sikes
Eric Pierpoint .... George Francisco
Michele Scarabelli .... Susan Francisco
Sean Six .... Buck Francisco
Lauren Woodland .... Emily Francisco
Ron Fassler .... Captain Brian Gazer
Terri Treas .... Cathy Franklin
Jeff Marcus .... Albert Einstein
Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs .... Sergeant Dobbs

Alien Nation Trivia

George's baby daughter Vessna was played by a puppet. A real baby could not be used as it was illegal to use the heavy alien makeup on an infant. The puppet got destroyed and the producers decided that the expense of creating another was cost-prohibitive so they developed the storyline about her being encased in a cocoon. We humans get sore necks and headaches when stressed. The newcomers get sore feet. When humans are embarassed, our faces turn red. The newcomers' eyes change color.

Alien Nation won an Emmy in 1990 for "Outstanding Achievement in Makeup for a Series". It had to beat fellow nominee "Star Trek: The Next Generation" to get that win! Ironically, more than a dozen years after Alien Nation ended, Gary Graham who played Matthew Sikes on Alien Nation would appear on a dozen episode of "Star Trek: Enterprise" as "Vulcan Ambassador Soval"! Gary also guest starred on an episode of "Star Trek: Voyager" titled, "Cold Fire" that aired in November of 1995!

You may not have noticed, but Gary Graham had a torn Achilles tendon during the filming of the pilot movie.

The alien newcomer seen at the end of the opening title was not played by Eric Pierpoint. It was an "extra" wearing his George Francisco "head" and makeup.

Luckily for them, George and Susan were very much in love. In the beginning, however, they were chosen as each other's mates by the "overseers". In fact, all of the slaves mates were chosen in that manner.

There was only one "overseer" on the slave ship for each 10,000 slaves!

Matt and Cathy's apartment was located at 2630 Lacey Street. That was actually the address of the studio where the show was filmed. Their apartment was actually the top floor of the studio.

Approximately 400 alien "heads" were used to film the show.

In the episode, "Fountain of Youth", it was disclosed that the newcomers life span is approximately 140 years and George Francisco is middle-aged at 70 years old.

If you could see through Michele Scarabelli's makeup, you might recognize that in addition to her role as Susan Francisco on Alien Nation, she also played the role of "Jo Santini" on the TV series, "Airwolf".

Talk about "alien"! The Tenctonian men carry their children during pregnancy! George was seen exercising while pregnant to a Jane Fonda workout video in episode #16, "Partners"!

In the first reunion movie, "Dark Horizon", there was a major blooper. George told Susan that he could remember being taken from his home planet Tencton and being put on the slave ship. In the TV show episode, "Contact", it was stated that George was born on the ship.

Alien Nation Opening Narrative

"That was the scene in California's Mojave Desert five years ago--our historic first view of the Newcomers' ship. Theirs was a slave ship, carrying a quarter million beings, bred to adapt and labor in any environment. But they'd washed ashore on Earth, with no way to get back to where they came from. And in the last five years, the Newcomers have become the latest addition to the population of Los Angeles."